'Extremely deplorable': Army grills Imran Khan over his claims
Pakistan
Army reserves right to follow legal pathway (
RAWALPINDI (Dunya News) – PTI Chief Imran Khan’s accusations against the military officers were "extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable”, stated the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Monday.
The rebuttal comes as Mr Khan had, earlier, accused a senior military officer of planning an attack on him and other PTI leaders in Wazirabad.
The ISPR stated that Mr Khan levelled the allegations without any evidence. “These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable,” the military’s media wing added.
The ISPR went on to state that Army reserved the right to follow a legal pathway against such accusations. “We ask the political leader concerned to make recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and malafide statements and propaganda.”
Observing the trend of allegations, the ISPR stated “This has been a consistent pattern for [the] last one year wherein military and intelligence agencies officials are targeted with insinuations and sensational propaganda for the furtherance of political objectives," the ISPR stated.
PTI's Reaction
PTI bigwigs including senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry and secretary general Asad Umar reacted to the ISPR's statement.
Mr Chaudhry took to Twitter to advocate for independent investigation into Mr Khan's allegations. He wrote, "The ISPR has released a surprising press statement. If Mr Khan thinks a military officer is involved in the attack, an independent investigation should be conducted to address his concerns. But, instead, a press release by the Army is suggesting otherwise and such behaviour does not bode well for the nation."
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 8, 2023
Mr Umar welcomed the Army's call for adopting a legal recourse while sharing Mr Khan's attempt to take the legal route by lodging an FIR. He wrote, "Totally agree with ISPR that a legal recourse should be taken to resolve the allegations . Imran khan has tried to do that by filing an FIR and approaching the supreme court. The institution supporting that legal recourse would be a very positive step forward".
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 8, 2023
